XPost: uk.politics.misc, uk.politics.animals, uk.current-events.general   
   XPost: uk.rec.pets.misc   
   From: banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk   
      
   Both the 'Daily Mail' and the 'Guardian' are playing up the whole 'why   
   doesn't the government act quicker?' thing with regard to 'avian flu'.   
      
   Editors must have got similar orders at yesterday's Downing Street media   
   meeting.   
      
   Same as the 'opinion formers' among the 'experts'. The following is   
   typical (from the 'Guardian' article):   
      
   >>>A Home Office report said this week that up to 320,000 people   
   >>>could die if a pandemic struck Britain.   
      
   What a completely ridiculous statement! Sure it wasn't 310,000 or   
   330,000? How can anyone make a serious prediction to two figures of   
   accuracy, of how many might die in a pandemic?   
      
   What are the loonies who rule us planning?   
      
   It strikes me that they might possibly find a 'pet cull', of one kind or   
   another, very useful for their purposes. The reason I say this is that   
   it wouldn't just be a matter of them changing a law or a regulation.   
   There would be widespread resistance, albeit in a hush-hush way. Many   
   people would keep their pets, but try not to let the neighbours and cops   
   and busybodies know. (Many people are using their garden hoses too). The   
   authorities could whip up a hysteria by saying that people who didn't   
   obey orders were responsible for the deaths of 73 people to avian flu,   
   etc. etc. Local stories, national stories, anything you want... Whittle   
   down the number of resisters, increase the solidarity of 'good citizens'   
   with the State... It would be a great time for headteachers, medics,   
   cops, local authority executives, regional emergency officials, etc. The   
   idea would be to create some kind of nightmare scape where no-one knows   
   what the fuck the rulers might do next. (Which for the most sensitive,   
   has already started anyway). It would bring the 'emergency' into   
   millions of people's homes, even more vividly than TV does...   
      
   I'm sure the private-practice veterinarians (who do a lot of   
   money gathering for companies such as Hill's, selling such bullshit as   
   dog nervousness pills and needless annual vaccinations) could be   
   'squared' one way or another...   
      
   In China the authorities carried out a mass cull of sparrows, which led   
   to a plague of caterpillars and locusts, which contributed to a famine   
   in which millions of people died.   
      
      
      
      
      
   --   
   banana     "The thing I hate about you, Rowntree, is the way you   
               give Coca-Cola to your scum, and your best teddy-bear to   
               Oxfam, and expect us to lick your frigid fingers for the   
               rest of your frigid life." (Mick Travis, 'If...', 1968)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)